There are a lot of people that are tired of hearing about feminist issues. But I hate that people don't realize the severity of the issue. My freshman seminar class at Loyola was called "Gender, Music, and Media." I took the class because Beyoncé was mentioned in the description and assumed that it would be an easy A. It wasn't my favorite class, but I now find myself looking at the media differently and thinking about how women are mistreated. Simple things like how writers describe a woman versus a man. For example, Hilary Clinton is typically labeled "Mrs. Clinton" rather than "Senator Clinton."

I recently got a tattoo. It has a lot of meaning to me and I've been wanting it for a while now. My family is sort of traditional in the way that we had to respect our elders, opinions from girls weren't as important, roles were assigned based on gender, the girls couldn't do the same things as the boys etc. Being raised in this atmosphere meant I was bound to be rebellious.

Although I'm of legal age to get a tattoo, I had to hide it from my family for a little while. But it got to the point where I didn't see why I had to hide it when my older siblings had tattoos themselves (some that are tacky and probably have no meaning behind them.) I am proud of who I am and the meaning behind the tattoo, so I decided to tell my sisters. They took it better than I expected and gave nice comments. It wasn't until my older brother saw it and asked why I had a tattoo that I heard negative comments. I asked him why I couldn't have a tattoo, to which he replied "because you're a girl." In that moment my head looked like Anger from "Inside Out" when he exploded with, well, anger. I said how sexist that comment was and that I would have gotten the same tattoo even if I was 35 and had a family. After I mentally punched him a few times, I calmed down and realized how girls just have it harder.

I've witnessed this throughout my life. My younger brother doesn't have a curfew, but I'm in college and my mom still calls me home early. I'm considered the "rebellious" one in the family because I try to fight the rules. I will blatantly call someone out if they did something wrong (even if they are older than me.) Every time my brother was allowed to do something that I didn't get to do, I called it out. I understand that it isn't safe for girls to be out and about at night in fear of rape or murder, but shouldn't parents be raising good men that know not to harm others? Why do I have to suffer when I am actually the more responsible one?

I often take my anger to Twitter (yeah I'm that person.) I find that I'm the only person that publicly talks about gender discrimination and I'm viewed as a "bitch" because of it. If the roles were reversed, guys would be getting praised.

I am tired of being mistreated because of my gender. It doesn't have to about a tattoo, but when someone tells me, "no, because you're a girl" again, I won't stand for it. We need to be a generation that will leave gender roles behind and raise their children to be good and fair. If a boy can get the name of his ex-girlfriend tattooed on him, then I should be able to get a tattoo of whatever I want.